1. Technical Field
This invention relates to an apparatus for protecting documents and more particularly, to a comic book protection apparatus including a document cover having generally flexible, generally rectangular front and rear panels connected to one another by a generally rectangular spine, the cover constructed of a generally translucent material and being of a size and shape to substantially cover and protect a comic book between the front and rear panels, and a cover-receiving envelope having front and rear envelope panels, the panels connected to each other on at least two sides, the envelope being constructed of a generally translucent material and being of a size and shape to receive and enclose the document cover between the front and rear envelope panels.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Comic book collecting has rapidly grown from nothing more than a child's hobby to a substantial section of the collectables market. However, due to the size of comic books as compared to other types of collectibles such as baseball cards, storage and protection of comic books can cause problems for collectors. There is therefore a need for a comic book protection apparatus.
Additionally, collectors who wish to occasionally thumb through their comic books must remove the comic book from the enclosing protective device and then contact the pages with their fingers while thumbing through the comic book. This results in transfer of finger tip oils and prints to the surface of the comic book and the pages of the book, oils and prints which can mar or destroy the ink-printed drawings in the comic book. Most importantly, these oils and prints can damage or destroy the cover of the comic book, which most collectors consider to be the most important part of the collectable comic book. There is therefore a need for a comic book protection apparatus which will allow a collector to read the comic book without contacting substantial portions of the page surfaces. It is also important that a comic book protection apparatus be constructed of a flexible, generally transparent material to enable viewing of the comic book when placed within the protection apparatus.
Several prior art devices have been proposed to address the above-stated needs. These include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,861,073, to Poretski, 4,477,013, to Herrin, 1,330,894 to Muffley, and 4,128,262. to DuCorday. Each of these prior art devices, however, include inherent limitations which prevent the devices from being used with collectable comic books. For example, Poretski discloses a paper-holding device which includes a plurality of intersecting crease lines which allow the device to be folded such as is commonly done with newspapers and the like. Clearly, such folding would be detrimental to storage and protection of a comic book. Both Herrin and Muffley will cause damage to comic books held therein, as Muffley requires perforations through the comic book (see column 2, lines 67-71), and Herrin includes a hinged line 18 which "pinches" a comic book held within the file folder. In any event, each of the prior art devices above include only a single layer of protection for a comic book held within the protection device. As merely opening any of the prior art devices exposes the comic book to elemental damage, there is a need for a protection device which will enclose the comic book cover within a second layer of protection, thus preventing accidental exposure of the comic book to elemental damage.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a comic book protection apparatus.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a comic book protection apparatus which includes a document cover having generally flexible, generally rectangular front and rear panels and a spine extending between and connected to the front and rear panels, the cover being constructed of a generally translucent material and being of a size and shape to cover and protect a comic book between the front and rear panels.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a comic book protection apparatus which further includes a generally rectangular cover-receiving envelope having front and rear envelope panels, the panels connected to each other on at least two sides, the envelope being of a size and shape to receive and enclose the document cover between the front and rear envelope panels and the envelope constructed of a generally translucent material.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a comic book protection apparatus which will not damage or destroy comic books being held therein.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a comic book protection apparatus which includes semi-circular thumb notches formed in the outer edges of the document cover to facilitate paging through a comic book held within the document cover.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a comic book protection apparatus which is constructed of generally semi-flexible material to prevent folding, bending or mutilating of comic books held within the comic book protection apparatus.
Finally, an object of the present invention is to provide a comic book protection apparatus which is simple to manufacture yet provides substantially complete protection for comic books held within the comic book protection apparatus.